by Laura LippmanLife Sentences is the perfect title of this book about an author who has wrote her life into sentences in two memoirs, one about her growing up in Baltimore as a white girl with four black friends and her father's remarriage to a black woman, the other about her two failed marriages.
Her memoirs became bestsellers, but her 3rd book - a novel, does not stand up well. Cassandra decides to return to writing nonfiction when she is reminded of a quiet childhood acquaintance who was charged with murdering her infant son. The friend never said a word during the trial, she served a 7-yr sentence in prison and when she was released she still wouldn't speak of what really happened. Cassandra sets out to find Caliope in hopes of learning the truth. In the process she interviews and reconnects to her childhood friends that were included in first memoir.
"A memory can be fragile, fleeting and not all together reliable, but it also can have the power to sustain a life commitment. Several people can experience the same event at the exact time, yet each have a different interpretation."
A wonderful told story that I enjoyed immensely. I've even order two more of Lippman's books because I was so impressed with her writing. I wish I would have marked more passages - there were several that I would like to reread again and again.
